Follow-up Study of Women with Augmentation Mammoplasty

The long-term health effects of augmentation mammoplasty remain unclear. In terms of cancer risk, there is concern both about breast cancer risk, due to the interference of implants in allowing mammographic visualization of lesions, as well as about other cancers, whose risk may be altered because of immunologic or other host responses to a foreign body.

Following a congressional mandate, a retrospective cohort study was undertaken in collaboration within 18 plastic surgery practices. Assembled for study were 13,500 women having undergone augmentation mammoplasty at these practices prior to 1989 and 4,000 comparison patients (women receiving other types of plastic surgery). Results have been published regarding associations of implants on risk of cancer and connective tissue disorders and on mortality.